An archaeologist finds herself writing fiction — what stories will she unearth?

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What Search Terms Bring People To Your Blog?

I’m going for a more light-hearted post today. I think my brain wants a little break from meatier topics as it works on the second draft of Death Out of Time. (As an aside, I had a good block of time to work on it yesterday. I got more done than I have in a few weeks. I’m hoping that’s a good sign.)

My curiosity about search terms is rather voyeuristic at this early stage of my blogging. Why? Because not many searches bring readers my way.

I know, I know. I should be better with using good tags and making offerings to the Google gods so they’ll like me and move me up in the search rankings. But I’m happy with my slow, steady pace. I can handle it.

But the last week or so, more searches than usual have brought visits to my blog. And it’s interesting to see what they are. The following data are courtesy of my cool WordPress site stats from yesterday:

“Character” variants — Maybe someone had a rough day typing? Or couldn’t remember the title of the post? But no worries. They got there.

“Clip Art” variants — Being good and citing my images has brought some unexpected traffic my way. Of course, the viewers won’t be finding “new” clip art. And they may question how good a job their search engine of choice is doing.

“Jonas Salk 5 Adjectives” — My first thought was, “Hmm, that’s an interesting search. Wonder if it’s for a class project.” And then I was scratching my head about “Jonas Salk.” How was my blog a result for that? But then I remembered Carrie Rubin mentioned him in a comment in my post “Losing the Academic Writing.” Someone was probably very disappointed in this hit.

“Death Out of Time” — Very specific. I’m guessing someone had heard about the book draft from someone else.

“Science Fiction Archaeology” — Maybe someone out there thinks like I do?

“Why Do Publishers and Editors Dislike Adverbs?” Yes! My personal favorite! Maybe I rank up there on the “adverb”-related searches. There must be tens of people searching on that every year or so, don’t you think? Of course, then there was…

“I hate adjectives” — That one should NOT have led to my blog! I don’t hate them! Like adverbs, they should be used in moderation, but they are not hate-worthy.

So there they are, the searches that led to my blog. Not too many, yet, but I haven’t been at this much over 3 months. But I’ll bet some of you have some good ones you could share.

So how about you? Have you mastered tagging and Google? Do you have favorite search terms that led someone your way? Something funny? Off the wall? Or totally unexpected?

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36 thoughts on “What Search Terms Bring People To Your Blog?”

It’s so interesting to see what brings people to your blog. Yesterday I got one which was “skeleton riding a fish”??
Not only do I not know what on earth the person was searching for I have absolutely NO idea why my blog came up as one of the results!

Wow, that’s a good one! I’m not sure what they were looking for either…. Maybe you used the words in different posts, or they showed up in someone’s comment? I wonder how many results would come up in general for that search.

Very cool, and very funny. No, I have NOT mastered the art of tagging, which is a big no-no seeing as how my mentor, Limebirdbeth, has gone out of her way to talk about how important it is!

Sadly, it is one of those things on my need-to-get-done list along with eight-nine other items.

I think it’s a hoot how some people find your blog, and I have wondered if they are happy with what they find or not? How do you know which followers you snag just by a random search? I tend to think I get more followers by being active through other blogs. I highly doubt that I’ve captured followers via random searches.

I think most, if not all, of my followers have come the traditional route as you said. Can you picture a student writing a paper at the last minute, frantically doing searches for something they can add to it? S/he’s probably swearing at the wasted time clicking on the link to my blog!

Oh cool—thanks for reblogging! That’s the first time anyone’s done that on my blog! I hope people will have fun with this post—maybe check their own search stats if they haven’t already. There are some good ones out there!

Hi, I’m an archaeologist living near Washington, DC. I’ve only been blogging for a few months, too. I’m focusing on my writing—I’m working on two novels, but I like to read different kinds of blogs, too. Sometimes I get ideas for things to write about on my blog from them, but I also just enjoy reading what others have to say.

any way best of luck in the blogging fieldd.nice to meet u.im from india(kerala).computer enginneer.if u have doubt in computer field pls feel to contact.nice to meet u.good dayy.pls snd ur email id r facebook

Today, it was ‘poems about being wise and age 25’ that brought one person to my site. Funny enough, ‘character’ has brought one or two in previous times. I’ve been blogging for roughly 3weeks but actively. Search terms probably start becoming a source of traffic with time. Initially, a search couldn’t even bring up my blog but now, it does. Thanks for the share!

You’re right, it does take a while for the search engines to include a new blog. It took maybe two months before a search brought someone to mine. I’ve had a lot of fun checking them now and again to see what’s brought people over. Sometimes you have to wonder!

That was a pretty specific search someone did this morning that brought them to your site! I’d bet your blog ranked high in the returns.

You know, I actually came across a WordPress blog where the word “writing” was meant to be part of the name—and it was spelled “writting.” Maybe we should be glad the search engines can figure out what our typos are supposed to be!

I’d bet you have posts and/or comments that include the phrase “target audience” and the word “laptop.” But they’re probably not in the same post! And that’s where the search engines linking ability probably frustrates some searchers who don’t use quotation marks for exact searches.

Isn’t it great to see the variety of search terms blog posts generate? Unfortunately, many of mine are more colorful than yours due to some of the entries I’ve posted (I should know that posting on placentas, six-packs, and Man Babies will produce odd searches!)

I, too, need to be better at tagging and getting Google’s attention, but there are just too many other areas where I’d prefer to focus my attention! Fun post!

Aw, now can’t you share some of the less colorful ones? You’ve got me curious! But I can see where your posts could come up on some interesting searches. And now that you’ve shared placentas, six-packs, and Man Babies here, maybe this one will bring some “interesting” search traffic! 🙂

Most of those are logical. Do you all use the word karma a lot? It’s not ringing a bell with me! I’d guess the words in “nerves when….” all show up somewhere in your posts and/or comments—just not all together! There’s that frustrated student again, writing the paper at the last minute and cursing his/her search results!

As for interusing your self. . . . The mind boggles. There’s the “good girl” response of “I have no clue” and the grown woman thinking, “I’m afraid to ask! Better not go there!”

Pus pocket and ingrown toenail weirdly get me good hits. Handmade jewelry is a double digit bringer. There are some weird ones every week too. Like Kata sex. I was on kata beach but I most definitely did not have sex there nor did I talk about the two together. That guy had to be wicked disappointed when he clicked on my link. 🙂

I’ve never clicked on site stats, I don’t know if I tag well in terms of SEO but i know i tag my posts very accurately according to what each is about. Thinking about it now, I actually do very little on the dashboard that isn’t directly related to posting entries.
This is a very good topic! Reading about how others approach blogging is very interesting, yeah?

I go for the “post accurate” approach rather than try to figure out SEO-friendly tags. I like the slow, steady approach for the blog. I don’t think I could handle the pressure of suddently having hundreds or thousands of followers!

It’s fun to check out the stats, though, just for the interest factor. You can see if your posts are getting shared, search terms that brought people to your blog, and nifty graphs and numbers for the life of your blog.

I can totally understand the Buffy hits 🙂 But I just searched your blog for “Abraham,” and WordPress told me there were 0 results. So I wonder what the “missing link” is that ties your blog to such a search?

I really enjoy checking them out. If I get more fun ones, I may have to do a follow up post 😉

You’re making me nervous now – have I spelled everything correctly?! Never mind all the UK/USA English variants! I didn’t realise you could run stats like this either, something else to do when I should be writing. Great post:-)

I know I’ve barely touched on all the ins and outs of WordPress. I click around on my stats and enjoy seeing the numbers generally going up ;). But some people are really into them. When I discovered the search terms, it gave me the idea for the post. There are some really interesting searches being done out there!

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On Adverbs

Adverbs are my place holders as ideas rush out and my fingers can’t keep up with them on the keyboard. Later, when I’m editing, they remind me what I was thinking. “He reached clumsily for his keys” can be revised to “He fumbled for his keys.” Or, “She said gently” reminds me to make sure her dialogue makes that feeling clear.